Dealing With The Dead
by Shayla H
Summary: British teen Claire is a Mediator, not that anyone has ever explained what she can do. With a pushy Mum and a workaholic Dad, life for Claire isn't easy to start with. When a psychotic ghost becomes obsessed with her, Claire's life hangs in the balance.
1. Chapter 1

**Dealing With The Dead - The Mediator Fan Fiction.**

_**chapter one.**_

I came out of my en suite bathroom feeling peaceful, humming to myself as I padded around my bedroom with only a towel wrapped around me. After a day of trudging around in the snow it felt great to be warm and I was looking forward to drying myself of and taking a nap. That was until a 50 year old man appeared on me bed. I jumped into the air and squealed a little before noticing the man had a glow around him, the glow I'd came to recognise from 16 years of helping spirits into the after world, this guy was a ghost.

I made sure my towel was secure and then took a deep breath to calm myself.

"Hello Sir, My name is Claire and I'm going to help you into the after life."

The guy looked up at me in shock. "Are you the Mediator?" The guy said, eyeing me up and down in disbelief.

"No one's bothered to explain what I can do to me, but yeah, that's what all the ghosts call me and I looked into it and that word pretty much fits what I can do." He was still staring blankly at me, so I decided to simplify what I was saying. "Yes. I'm the Mediator."

"Good." He said, taking in a deep breath he no longer needs and looking around my bedroom. While he was looking around I looked at him, fat, balding, bad skin and thick glasses highlight that this guy was not Mr sporting, a fact that had probably killed him. "I want to know why I'm still here," the man said when he was done sight seeing.

"I've found that a ghost kicks around because they have some form of unfinished business." Jeesh, might as well tape me saying that and play it back whenever a ghost asks why they're still around. "Any idea what needs to be done for you to get to where you're going?"

The man stared at his hands for a second before speaking again. "I lived alone and don't have any close friends or family. I think the reason I'm here is so my body doesn't just sit in my house." Ok, gross.

"Ok, Write down your address and I'll call in the police saying that I walk past your house after school each day but haven't seen you in a while and have gotten worried. Seem ok?" This ghost was simple enough, he hasn't even tried to kill me yet! The ghost sort of stared at me for a second then suddenly vanished. a bit of paper floating through the air and landing where he'd been sitting on the end of my bed.

"Well, a bye would of been nice." I mumbled to myself before I walked over to the big mirror opposite my bed. I unwound the towel for my head and sorted it with my hands before looking at myself. Small and slim, I look a bit taller because years of horse riding has meant that my backs always straight. My hair looks darker at the moment due to the ends still being wet, but it stills goes to my chest in loose blonde waves. My eyes are blue and big but I normally keep them narrowed because I tend to be slightly annoyed, getting beat on by ghosts for no apparent reason does that to you.

I started to towel dry my hair, walking around my big bedroom in just a towel when suddenly the door burst open and my mum walked in. Blonde hair short and held in place by what I like to think is a mix of hair spray and fear for its well being. Black trousers, blouse, trademark glare and the ever present ear piece complete my mum's always-the-same look.

"Ever heard of knocking before!" I say, gripping the towel to myself as my mum glares around my mildly messy room.

"You need to tidy more." My mum says looking back at me, "Besides, I just came in to say that I've got to go a meeting and your father is working late so you'll be home alone for a bit. I'm trusting you to be responsible." Oh no! A sixteen year old girl home alone for an hour! What a crime.

"I'll be fine Mum," I say, and she comes forward and kisses me on the cheek. "I was just going to tidy room, do some homework and go out to the stables for a bit." Mum nods approvingly and opens her mouth to say something but her ear piece cuts her off. It beeps softly and she presses a button on the side of it and turns to leave.

"Talk to me." She says as she leave the room, shutting the door behind her.

"What a great start to the day." I mutter to myself, throwing myself onto my bed.

_x_

_It's short to introduce you to the character, you guys like it, I'll be doing more soon but reviews will speed me up;) Was a bit bummed today because I didn't get tickets to go see One Direction and writing this cheered me up a bit. :) Thanks for reading._


	2. Chapter 2

**Dealing With The Dead - The Mediator Fan Fiction.**

_**chapter two.**_

Once my Mum had disappeared to work I sighed to myself and got dressed quickly, grabbing my riding helmet and running out the door. It was a 10 minute walk from my house to Evergreen Stables but I always enjoyed the walk.

Evergreen Stables had always been something of a second home to me and my best friend Kate since we started our riding lessons there at the age of 9 but since we'd recently bought our own horses the stable had became more of a proper home than my real house. We have to visit daily to muck out and ride our horses Peter and Shannon, since we'd opted for the indoor stabling, but neither of us minded. I had enough land around my house to build a reasonable sized stable but despite my Mum and Dad constantly insisting on it I can't keep horses near my home, it's ghost central there and you don't want to be around a horse when it really spooks, it's not fun.

The air was cold and even in a thick jacket and thermal the wind whipped against me, live in Scotland all your life and you get used to it though. I walked quickly towards the stable and as soon as the fields of horses around the stable itself came into view I smiled to myself. The horses in fields near to me trotted up to their fences for a pet and I stroked a few off them softly, giving them a pat on their necks before walking off. Evergreen Stable isn't a large stable but it's like a family. Within our first lesson all the instructors and staff knew me and Kate's names and because of that we felt at home there. The stable consists of lots of fields were peoples horses are kept, along with two outdoor school areas, two indoor school areas, a jumping field, lots of woodland around the stable for hacks and two large stable blocks; one for school ponies for those taking lessons, one for horses being stabled indoors. I made my way through the Stables until I reached the stall where my horse was kept. There was rustling from Shannon's stall so I figured Kate was already here and set to work.

'Hey there Petey!' I whispered excitedly and Peter's ears twitched and he whinnied. Peter is a Morgan with a lovely dark brown coat and white markings on his face, he's thin but fast and practically born for cross country. He's such an amazingly calm horse. Kate's horse Shannon on the other hand is a thousand pounds of stubborn mare who only likes Kate. Shannon is a clumpy half Clydesdale who is surprisingly agile for her size but very grumpy. 'Hey Kate. Want to do some basic stuff today, I need to practice my trot some more since I've not used it in a while.' I say peeking my head into Shannon's stall where Kate is currently shovelling.

'Fine by me.' Kate says, smiling up at me. Kate's a bit stockier than me but the same height, with long ginger her and huge brown eyes. 'Muck out your stall, I'll wait for you.' I quickly put on his head collar and lead Pete to the area we put the horses while mucking out stalls and got ready for 10 minutes of shovelling manure. 

'The things I do for you.' I whisper into Pete's ear then pat him softly.

After mucking out the Stalls and tacking up the horses, and ourselves, Kate and I went to the second of the two outdoor schools and both got on. We did some walking to warm up then some rising trot and I was enjoying the feel of the wind pushing my hair out behind me. We took up our stirrups and were practicing our sitting trot when it happened. All of a sudden both the horses bolted to the other side of the school in unison launching both Kate and I off their backs. Both of the horses turned their backs to the fence and stared behind where Kate and I were lying on our butts in the middle of the school. I silently thanked my riding helmet and took it off, rubbing my back and groaning.

'Stupid wind.' Kate mumbled, looking dazed and wincing in pain. I went to stand to try and help her and felt arms around my waist lifting me. I held back a squeal and turned to find a dead guy facing me. He had pale blue eyes and hair as black as the wings of a raven. Even without the whole dead-person-glow around him he would have gave me the chills. I stared at him and glared slightly, rubbing my back where it ached dully.

'Oops, my bad.' He said, not sounding sorry at all and smiled slightly. I strode away from him and helped Kate stand.

'Are you okay?' I asked Kate worriedly, ignoring the fact the dead guy was following alongside me and eyeing me up and down.

'Fine I think, I need an icepack on my leg though.' She rubbed her leg and grimaced. 'Can you un-tack Shannon and put her in her stall please? She'll be a good girl. Won't you Shannon?' She shouted the last part cheerily to the horse who whinnied and continued looking scared.

'Sure, you go get you icepack. Shannon's safe with me.' I smiled at Kate and she hobbled off in the direction of the cottage which had bathrooms, staffrooms and a medical room. As soon as she was gone I looked around, checking no one was around. 'Hey! Dead guy!' I pushed him slightly back from me and glared at him. 'You spooked the horses and hurt Kate! Don't you realise that you don't mess with animals?' 

'Hey! I didn't know you'd be here. Someone told me find the Mediator, I found one.' He continued to smile creepily at me and eyed me up and down again. I took of my helmet and fiddled with my hair, walking to the opposite side of the school with dead guy to try make the horses to calm down some more. 'If I knew being dead went speaking to pretty girls in tight riding trousers I would of made more of an effort to get in a road accident sooner.' Ok, I'd had ghosts flirt with me before but this was just starting to creep me out.

'They're called Jodhpurs!' I snapped, pointing at the riding trousers I was wearing. 'Now, let me get to business. My name is Claire and I'm a Mediator. How can I help you move on to the afterlife or the pearly gates or wherever you belong?'

'Well, Claire.' He over pronounced each word and lost his smirk. 'You can start by killing the guy who ran me over.'

Oh dear, not _another_ crazy one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Dealing with The Dead**

_**Chapter three**_

'I am not murdering anyone!' I snap at the ghost, trying to cut off his crazy scheme before he gets too far with it. He frowned at me and the fence behind him rocked slightly, uh oh. 'Look, Go away for now and find me in half an hour. I won't be around animals then and we can talk.' _Or_ I can beat you up, whichever comes first.

The fence stopped it's swinging and the ghost continued to glare at me. 'Fine.' He said and vanished. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down, boy that guy was creepy.

The horses held still in the corner but no longer looked spooked. I went over to them and patted them both, trying to calm them down some more. 'Yeah, he scared me too.' I whispered into Peter's ear and he blew air loudly out of his nose and twitched his ears. Shannon was looking at me a bit worriedly but although she doesn't like me she never bites me like she does to everyone else.

I ran up the horses stirrups and lead them both to the stable area where we un-tack the horses. I've gotta admit, I always feel really in control when I'm leading a horse. I un-tacked them both and gave them a drink of water while I gave Shannon a quick brush. I then put Shannon back into her stall and spent some more time with Peter, just petting him, grooming him and feeding him treats. Once that was done I walked out the stables and almost bumped into a limping Kate.

'Oh, hey.' She said, smiling at me. 'Thanks for putting Shannon back.'

'It's no problem.' I replied, shrugging and rubbing my hands on my mud stained blue jodhpurs. 'I've groomed her and put her back in the stall for you.' Kate gave me a quick thanks and I began my walk home.

I speed walked this time, realising that I only had ten minutes before ghost guy reappeared. I got home with five minutes to spare and checked the house to make sure I was alone before just waiting for him to appear. There was no point in changing as I didn't have time so I just sat on the end of my bed in mucky riding gear. He appeared just on time.

'So. Are you gonna kill the person who killed me so I can move on into the afterlife?' He asked as if it was no big deal, He leaned against my bedroom wall and glared at me.

'I'm a Mediator. I don't just go around _killing_ people.' That'd mean more work to me, I thought to myself and held back a laugh.

'Well if you're not going to kill him I will.' Ghost boy shrugged and smiled as if we'd reached a nice group conclusion.

'No you won't.' I snap, looking at him with wide eyes. 'You don't just kill people. Now tell me who you are and how you died and maybe we'll figure out where to go from there.'

'My name's Scott.' Ghost boy said flatly 'I died when I was walking home from school, I car hit me. The guy driving was drunk, he didn't even stop to check I was alive.' Harsh.

'Well _Scott_.' I said clearly, clicking my tongue. 'You're gonna have to think of another way to get yourself into the afterlife. Murder is not the way to go.'

'And what makes you so sure?' he raised his eyebrows at me and gave me a wintry smile, his eyes gleaming with menace, 'it's not like you're the one whose life is over, is it? It's going to get boring floating around for all eternity alone, only you for company.'

'Hey,' I said a little too sharply, the whole idea of being stuck with him following me around for the rest of my life was not sounding enjoyable. There was something about him that creeped me out more than most ghosts, a sort of predatory glint in his eye as he watched me. 'It's not all bad, you can speak too other ghosts as well. Anyway, that's not what I meant. I meant that maybe your unfinished business isn't murdering someone? Maybe there's a lost possession, or a family member you want to say bye to, or...' I waved my hands at Scott, expecting him to fill in the blanks. Instead he just glared at me.

'If being dead is so great, why don't you join me?' He gave another smile that made me shudder before turning and pacing. Oh boy, he's a difficult one. 'Besides,' he said, turning back towards me. 'There's nothing else I have left unfinished but killing the moron who did this to me so I'm doing it whether you help me or not'

Scott's outline began to vanish as he began to do the ghostly disappearing trick I'd grown so used to over the years. I wasn't done talking to him though, and his sudden disappearance made me panic. I wasn't sure how I was going to stop him from killing.

So I jumped from my seat at the end of my bed and punched him.

Scott fell to the floor, his edges becoming clear again and a trail of blood running from his nose. I sucked in a deep breath and looked around for a weapon in case Scott decided to fight back. I'd not wanted to have to do that-especially not to a ghost as crazy as this one-but he'd been going to leave and I couldn't have that.

I marched across my room while Scott was still crumpled on the floor and picked on the first thing I found, a large textbook on psychology. I stood over Scott holding the book back, ready to swing in case of an attack.

Scott began to shudder and I panicked, wondering what was up. I know I can punch, I've been forced to punch and kick angry spirits for years now, but never have I seen a ghost do _this._

It was then I realised what was happening, Scott was laughing. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and stared up at me, hair mussed, eyes sparkling and blood dripping from his lip.

'Well aren't you full of suprises?' he said, wiping at the blood on his face. 'I like it.'

-x-

Thanks for reading. Please give me a quick review, it means the world to me. :)  
>Shayla<p> 


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